Not just a matter of going into markets where Southwest isn't flying, it's also a matter of cherry picking routes with frequencies spread out across the week. Think of it as the "Allegiant Model Meets the Hub and Spoke Model."

if assumptions could fly, airliners.net would be the world's busiest airport

You got it! It has been discussed quite extensively both by Bryan Bedford before and continues with David Siegel that they want the cost structure in the ULCC range. They have also both indicated that they would prefer to keep the product a step up, while generating additional ancillary revenue "where it makes the most sense."

The cost structure might be getting there, but I wonder how long it is until we see Spirit-like scheduling with departures at 1:40 a.m. or whatever. They've got the planes - why not keep them in the air?

if assumptions could fly, airliners.net would be the world's busiest airport

Quoting stlgph (Reply 7):The cost structure might be getting there, but I wonder how long it is until we see Spirit-like scheduling with departures at 1:40 a.m. or whatever. They've got the planes - why not keep them in the air?

I wish. I'd love to see some red-eyes in there, not necessarily daily. AZA-MCO - BIS-MCO, etc.

Quoting HPRamper (Reply 4):Looks like it will be on Airbus aircraft as before.

IIRC last time F9 served FAR it was with Q400's.

Quoting stlgph (Reply 7):The cost structure might be getting there, but I wonder how long it is until we see Spirit-like scheduling with departures at 1:40 a.m. or whatever. They've got the planes - why not keep them in the air?

Quoting stlgph (Reply 5):Not just a matter of going into markets where Southwest isn't flying, it's also a matter of cherry picking routes with frequencies spread out across the week. Think of it as the "Allegiant Model Meets the Hub and Spoke Model."

I hope this is a sustaining long term strategy.

Quoting floridaflyboy (Reply 6):. They have also both indicated that they would prefer to keep the product a step up, while generating additional ancillary revenue "where it makes the most sense."

Although I've never flown Spirit, I've read several reviews on their service and they haven't been very complimenary.

NK could still use their operating model, but improve their service (like WN does.)

Quoting stlgph (Reply 5):Not just a matter of going into markets where Southwest isn't flying, it's also a matter of cherry picking routes with frequencies spread out across the week. Think of it as the "Allegiant Model Meets the Hub and Spoke Model."

Would that be the "FL strategy," except that DEN has somewhat more competition than ATL?

Quoting Cubsrule (Reply 11):Would that be the "FL strategy," except that DEN has somewhat more competition than ATL?

AirTran was pretty solid with regular/daily service to its Atlanta hub, and sparse scheduling point to point. Frontier's doing sparse scheduling to its main hub from smaller markets, complimenting frequent daily scheduling to larger markets.

if assumptions could fly, airliners.net would be the world's busiest airport

. . . west of the Mississippi. But in the eastern part of the country, they have the MCO experiment (to TYS, ABE, TTN, etc.) that looks an awful lot like MCO. And remember that DEN does have some leisure demand.

I was checking on Expedia and I see that F9 has sold about half the seats on the DEN-SBN flights for the Notre Dame-Stanford weekend and the Notre Dame-BYU weekends. But it is early yet and I figure there are people that do not have their tickets yet for the games and haven't made their travel arrangements yet. It seems to be that way on all SBN flights on competitors out of ORD and ATL or DTW. I was getting a little worried that F9 would have problems filling a 138 seat A319 on the route but I really think come game week those flights will be full.